This week was the last trip through The Great Movie Ride. If you haven’t been to Hollywood Studios, this is a movie-themed ride that took you through the best scenes of classic movies. The ride officially closed on August 17, 2017, to be replaced with Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway.

The Ride has animatronic figures, live actors, special effects, movie sets and projections to create iconic scenes from twelve classic films throughout motion picture history. The outside of the ride was styled to look like the Famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, one of Hollywood’s most famous movie palaces. It even had handprints in cement, which is just like Grauman’s.

Inside the ride featured scenes from famous movies such as Gene Kelly swinging from a lamp post from Singin’ in the Rain, followed by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke singing on the rooftops of London from Mary Poppins. There was a Western, a Gangster movie, Casablanca was featured as well as The Wizard of Oz. It was a great ride, but the most current movie featured, Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in the 1981.

Disney fans are always split when this happens. Half are extremely sad and don’t want any changes to ever come to Disney World. Others are eagerly awaiting the new ride and can’t wait to see what the Imagineers have created for us. I love tradition, but The Great Movie Ride felt old-fashioned and out of date to me. I am definitely in the second crowd. Hot Hubby does not like change and he is still pouting.

I am so excited to be going to Disney World in Florida for 7 days in November. But after the excitement, comes the planning. I have already made my dining reservations, which you can do 180 days before your trip.

Next step, planning your Fast Pass selections, which you can do 60 days before your trip. First, I have been researching and have determined which rides I want at each park and I wrote about that in a previous post. Second, now I need to pick a day for each park, so I can choose the correct ride on the correct day. It wouldn’t ruin my trip to just wing it, but this is my first trip with my new Bonus children (Hot Hubby’s children) and I am trying to look good….ha ha.

There are Four Parks. During our visit , Epcot has the Food & Wine Festival, the Food & Wine Marathon and the Very Merry Christmas Party is going on at Disney World. These are definitely something to notice and schedule around. The Food & Wine Festival will be fun, but will make Epcot very crowded on the weekend. Very Merry Christmas party closes Disney World early and requires a separate ticket, so we will avoid that area, except for the day we have tickets!

We are traveling with little ones, so we will plan to be at the park early, leave after lunch for nap time (not sure who will need this most the kids, or Hot Hubby). Then return to the park for late afternoon fun.

Here is my plan:

Sunday – Animal Kingdom – 9 am – 7 pm start small and build up

Monday – Hollywood Studios – 9 am – 8 pm

Tuesday – Magic Kingdom 9am – 9 pm Late start to see Fantasmic

Wednesday – Epcot – Princess dinner reservations

Thursday – Magic Kingdom – Very Merry Christmas Party

Friday – Magic Kingdom

I probably need to put a day off in there, but what should I move? I am too excited to think about a day at the pool instead of a day with MICKEY! Maybe if I just put two late start days into the schedule, I won’t be totally exhausted by Saturday…..but if I am….i can sleep at home!

I am so excited to be taking my bonus granddaughters to Disney World for the first time. I live in the Southwest, so we are Disneyland aficionados. Disney World, on the other hand, has changed a little since we last visited.

There is a new Fast Pass system, that allows you to reserve 90 days before arrival, three fast passes for every park you are visiting. To be successful, you need to pick three rides for each land (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom). You also need to know which day you are visiting each park. This creates a matrix effect in my little brain and it says, “Danger Will Robinson!”

So I decided to take this a step at a time. Today, I am just tackling which three rides I want fast passes for, then next week, I will decide which park, which day. So when it comes time to schedule, I will be prepared.

Here is my list:

Start with the Easiest: Animal Kingdom
1) Avatar Flight of Passage – the newest, latest, greatest Disney ride
2) Kilimanjaro Safari
3) Expedition Everest? This is a roller coaster that has a height requirement of 44″. So we could get this for the adults and then swap off entertaining the children in Dino Land

Hollywood Studios

1) Star Tours

2) First Time in Forever

3) Toy Story Midway Mania

4) Fantasmic!

Epcot

1) Soarin’

2) Spaceship Earth

3) Journey into Imagination with Figment

or 3) Test Track which has a height requirement of 40″ but again, the adults can trade off

Magic Kingdom Day 1

1) Peter Pan’s Flight – this has the longest line in the park and the girls will love it